How to Make Earrings

How to make earrings - let me count the ways! Earrings are one of the easiest types of jewelry to make, and are a perfect starting point for beginners to art of jewelry-designing. Many of our earrings designs in this section are simple and just so much fun to make. Frequently, only a few beads, a head pin, and some wire are all you need to make a pair of great-looking earrings.

How to Make Earrings in a Variety of Styles

Some of our simple designs use the same techniques to make the earrings, but the type of beads chosen can determine if they are more dressy and classic, or more casual and funky. You’ll find a variety of ideas in this “how to make earrings” section of our website. One of our favorite designs, Stays-On Ear Wires, features an ear wire that will stay on the ear and not move. We also have Ear Thread Earrings that feature threads of chain in lieu of an ear wire. And if you want to look like a celebrity, then do not miss our vast assortment of chandelier earring designs that always receive rave reviews when we publish them.

There are so many fabulous designing ideas for both new and experienced jewelry designers who are seeking more information on how to make earrings. Enjoy perusing this section of our website now!

Instructions for making Suzanne's Beaded Earrings out of jewelry wire, beads and common jewelry supplies using WigJig jewelry tools:

We call these earrings Suzanne's Wire & Beads Earrings because Boomer's Mom, Suzanne, designed them. This design uses 10 regular metal pegs and the round pattern portion of our WigJig Cyclops or Centaur. This is an intermediate jewelry making project. It is not suitable for someone who is not comfortable making jewelry because it is larger and more complex than our beginner's projects. Because there are so many steps in this project, it will take a longer time to make these earrings than our normal earrings projects.

Warning -- if you do not have patience, then we recommend you do not make these earrings. We flipped the design over after each loop. The resulting finished piece will be just two layers of wire, and will look better than if it were made without flipping the piece over. Unfortunately, it takes longer to employ this technique. We will try to show every step that we performed in making this design. Because we were removing the piece from our jig after making each loop in the earring body, there will be a lot of steps to making these earrings. For some people, the beauty of this design will be well worth the additional effort. For people who are in a hurry, this isn't the right design for you.

Step 2: Using the first step in your fine step jaw pliers, make a loop in the end of the jewelry wire with the flush cut. This is the end that is flat and not sharp.

Step 3: Straighten the jewelry wire. This is accomplished by grasping the loop with one hand and pulling the wire repeatedly through the jaws of your nylon jaw pliers until it is straight.

Step 4: Position the pegs in your WigJig Centaur jewelry tool as shown at right. The pattern here is shown on the round portion of the WigJig Centaur tool. You could also use a WigJig Cyclops jewelry tool. This pattern uses 10 pegs. Normally we would start any jewelry making project with just 2 pegs and add pegs as we go. Because this pattern is so complex, we find that it is easier to position all the pegs in the pattern at the beginning and to use the WigJig Spacer Press tool to push the wire down on each peg. Because this pattern is complex, we have created a template that shows where to place the pegs for our WigJig Centaur or Cyclops jewelry tools. If you have the WigJig Cyclops jewelry tool, you need to align the center peg in the Cyclops with the center peg in the Centaur jewelry tool shown in the template.

Step 5: In making these earrings, we will wrap the jewelry wire around a peg, then remove the wire from the jewelry making jig and flip it over. After flipping it over we will then wrap the jewelry wire around the next peg. You will see in the following steps this succession of wrapping the wire then flipping the wire over. Begin by placing the loop in the end of the wire on the first peg, the center peg in the round pattern as shown at right.

Step 6: Wrap the jewelry wire around the first peg in your WigJig jewelry tool as shown below-left. Use your WigJig Spacer Press to push the wire down after you have completed wrapping.

Step 7: Remove the jewelry wire from the WigJig jewelry tool and reposition it onto the jewelry making jig in the orientation shown below-right. Essentially we are just flipping the jewelry wire over horizontally. By doing this step, the finished wire component will be two layers of wire and will be more esthetically pleasing.

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8: Wrap the jewelry wire around the next peg in your WigJig jewelry tool as shown below-left.

Step 9: Remove the wire from the jewelry making jig and replace it in the position shown below-right.

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10: Wrap the jewelry wire around the next peg in the pattern on your WigJig jewelry tool as shown below-left. Use your Spacer Press tool to push the wire down.

Step 11: Remove the jewelry wire from the WigJig jewelry tool and replace it on the pegs as shown below-right.

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12: Wrap the jewelry wire around the next peg as shown below-left. (You can remove the next peg in the pattern if that makes this step easier.)

Step 13: Remove the jewelry wire from the jewelry jewelry making jig and replace it in the position shown below-right.

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14: Wrap the jewelry wire around the peg in the pattern on your WigJig jewelry tool as shown below-left. Use your Spacer Press to push the wire down.

Step 15: Remove the jewelry wire from the jewelry making jig and replace it in the position shown below-right. This is essentially flipping the jewelry wire component over horizontally.

Step 14

Step 15

Step 16: Wrap the jewelry wire around the peg as shown below-left. Use your Spacer Press tool to push the wire down. (You can remove the next peg in the pattern if this makes it easier.)

Step 17: Remove the jewelry wire from the WigJig jewelry tool and replace it in the position shown below-right.

Step 16

Step 17

Step 18: Wrap the jewelry wire around the peg as shown below-left.

Step 19: Remove the wire from the jewelry making jig. In this step you will need to do two things. First, you will need to reposition the wire tail of unused wire behind the initial wire segment. In the position shown for Step 18 the wire is on top of the wire segment between the second and third loops. You will need to gently reorient the wire tail so that it is behind the wire segment between the second and third loops. Once you have accomplished that, then you need to flip the jewelry wire segment over and reposition it on the WigJig jewelry tool as shown below-right.

Step 18

Step 19

Step 20: Wrap the jewelry wire around the next peg in your jewelry making jig until it rests adjacent to the right side of the first peg. See the picture shown below-left. Please note that the picture below-left has a small error. You want to push the jewelry wire so that it is on the opposite side of the next peg (the empty peg in the pattern). It may be easier to remove the next peg in the pattern and push the wire until it rests adjacent to the opposite side of next peg with no pressure applied. Use your Spacer Press tool to push the wire down after you have completed the wrap.

Step 21: Remove the jewelry wire from the WigJig jewelry tool and reposition in as shown below-right. In this picture we show the proper orientation of the wire adjacent to the next (last) peg in the pattern.

Step 20

Step 21

Step 22: Wrap the jewelry wire around the next peg in the pattern as shown below-left.

Step 23: You won't need to remove the wire from the jewelry making jig in this step. Just wrap the jewelry wire around the initial peg as shown below-right.

Step 22

Step 23

Step 24: Remove the jewelry wire from the WigJig jewelry tool and it should appear as shown below-left.

Step 25: Using your flush cutter, cut the excess wire. Use your bent chain nose pliers to close the final loop. At this point you want to use your nylon jaw pliers to firmly squeeze the wire component in many different orientations. Your finished earring body should appear as shown below-right.

Step 24

Step 25

Step 26: Now we are ready to assemble the earrings. The first step in assembling the earrings will be to make a modified figure 8 connector to connect at the top of the earring body. Use 1 1/4" of 18 or 20 gauge jewelry wire to make the modified figure 8 connector. One loop in the modified figure 8 connector will need to be slightly larger than normal so that it can connect to both loops at the top of the earring body. Once you have completed the modified figure 8 connector connect the larger loop of the connector to the two loops at the top of the earring body by opening the loop with your bent chain nose pliers and then closing the loop.

Step 27: The second step in assembling the earrings is to connect the ear wire finding to the top of the modified figure 8 connector that you just connected to the earring body. If you use a commercial ear wire you merely use your bent chain nose pliers to open the loop in the ear wire finding, make the connection and then close the loop.

Step 28: The final step in making these earrings is to add between one and three bead dangles to the bottom loops of the earring body. For the earrings shown above, we used one 6mm round bead, two size 8 seed beads, and one 4mm round bead for each bead dangle.

Summary of jewelry making instructions:

We hope that you like Suzanne's Jewelry Wire & Beads Earrings. Please remember that this project, like most jewelry making projects, will work best if you make a couple of these earrings out of 1/2 hard practice wire like the Artistic Wire non-tarnish brass, Item 0521 or Item 0522. Soft wire will not work as well for making these earrings because soft wire won't easily wrap tightly around the many pegs in this pattern.

Jewelry Making: From beginner to expert levels

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Jewelry Wire

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